Convicted terrorist wins lawsuit over mail rules

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge ruled that a man serving a life sentence for terrorism was wrongly prohibited from communicating with a list of 32 friends and relatives.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger ruled Tuesday in favor of Khalfan Khamis Mohammed, who filed suit against the FBI over the restrictions, The Denver Post reported (http://tinyurl.com/l9bsump ).

Mohammed is in the Supermax federal prison in southern Colorado. He was convicted in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, which killed 11 people and injured 85.

Krieger wrote that the FBI arbitrarily prohibited Mohammed's contact with his friends and relatives.

She said FBI agents failed to give persuasive evidence that Mohammed's relatives' bitterness over his imprisonment made them a national security threat. Bitterness alone should not justify restrictions on their contact with him, she said.

During testimony last month, an FBI attorney told the judge the mail and telephone restrictions on Mohammed were intended to stop future acts of terrorism.

An FBI agent testified that Mohammed had told investigators that if he were released, he would try to kill Americans in terrorist attacks.

Krieger said increased cooperation on both sides could have likely resolved the dispute before it spawned a lawsuit.